The Detroit duo the White Stripes staked out a position on the extreme wing of retro. The guitarist Jack White and the drummer Meg White were rock 'n' roll refuseniks, determined to follow their own rigorous rules: no bass guitar, no clothes that weren't either red or white, no acknowledgment that they weren't really brother and sister.

From a distance the White Stripes look like formalists, their music and overall style governed by a series of considered limitations. They're only two, guitar and drums; they're both named White; they dress only in red, white and black; they proclaim affinity for blues, country, American roots music and pre-1965 recording technology.

The White Stripes know how to work a concept. From their self-titled debut album in 1999 to their new one, ''Elephant," they have laid claim to a perennial: the idea of Back to Basics, which has been the impetus behind punk rock, blues-rock and quite possibly rock 'n' roll itself.

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April 8, 2012, Sunday

A moment of silence for the White Stripes, please. The band, consisting of the not-really-brother-and-sister Jack and Meg White, have not released an album in almost four years, and on Wednesday they formally announced on their Web site that t...